'^^3-] Brewster oh a Collecfio?? of Arizona Birds. •? 9 



152. Callipepla squamata ( F/"^.) G^''«J- Scaled Qiiail. 

 ■ — These Qiiail were usually met with in the most barren places, 

 often in deserts miles from any water. They were common- 

 ly found in flocks of from six to ten, but as many as thirty were 

 occasionally seen together. They were so shy and difficult to 

 obtain that Mr. Stephens rarely got more than one from a flock. 

 He traced them westward to Picacho Station (Southern Pacific 

 Railroad) beyond which point he thinks they do not extend. 



Some time since I called attention* to certain points of difference be- 

 tween Texas and Arizona specimens of the Blue Quail, suggesting the 

 name ^'■pallida" for the Arizona representative in the event of its proving 

 distinct.- More recent examination of material from various localities 

 has confirmed the stability of these difterences, which are certainly suffi- 

 cient to warrant the recognition of a new race. I find, however, that 

 Vigors describedf the pale interior form, which accordingly must stand 

 as C. squamata, the Texas bii'd being the one eligible for a new name. J 

 As the the two have been more or less generally confused hy authors I 

 find it necessary to rearrange their characters as follows : — 



Callipepla squamata ( Vigors) Gray. Scaled Quail. 



Adult $ (No. 5S70 — ^^collector's No. 1S3 — near Tombstone. Arizona, 

 April 9, iSSi. F. Stephens). Head with abroad, convex, but not con- 

 spicuous crest of lengthened feathers. Above faded ashy-brown with a 

 faint bluish cast on the nape and tail; beneath brownish-white, nearly 

 uniform, but with a trace of ashy on the breast; entire head, including 

 the throat, cheeks, forehead, crown and occiput (but not the crest), nearly 

 uniform pale brownish-drab, without markings; feathers of nape, back 

 anteriorly, and the breast, narrowly but sharply' margined with black, giv- 

 ing the effect of imbricated scales, the feathers of the breast having in 

 addition a concealed, obtusely-V-shaped marking of brown ; feathers of 

 the abdomen with transverse, sub-terminal, irregular bars of rusty-brown : 

 those of the crissum with shaft streaks of rusty; tips of long feathers of 

 the crest, inner edges of tertials, and shaft-streaks on feathers of the 

 flanks, yellowish-white ; no rustj^ patch on the abdomen. 



«This Bulletin, Vol. VI, p. 72. 



t " OrTYX SQUAMATUS. Corpore plumhescetiti-caiw, intcrscapidio pectoreque dilu- 

 tioiibiis, Jiorum piuinis cirado gracili brimtieo ad apicem cinctis; cristcs occipitalis apice, 

 gulii, abdominc 7nedio, crisso, striisque abdominis laterimi rufescenti-albis. 



MaGNITUUO Ortygis caHforiiianl. 



Habitat in Mexico. In MIjs/eo Soc. Zool" — Zool. Journal, V, 275. 



t In addition to the names Ortyx squamatus and Callipepla squaiiiata, the synonymy 

 of the species includes only two titles; viz. Callipepla stte72tia,Wz.g\'ir, Isis, XXV, 1832, 

 278; and Tetrao crlstata, De la Llave, Registro tremistre, I, 1832, 144. Wagler's diag- 

 nosis clearly applies to C. squaniata proper ; I have not been able to consult the other 

 reference , but from the extracts given by Cassin (111., I, 1853, p. 133), especially the 

 sentence, ''It inhabits the Mesquite regions in Northern Mexico," I infer that De la 

 Llave also described the same form. 



